Elizabeth Laird is said to have embraced about a half-million Fort Hood soldiers departing or returning to the Texas military post since the beginning of the Iraq War, according to news reports.

Her story recently caught the attention of Jeffrey Wolf, 50, of Penn Township, who saw a GoFundMe page created by Laird's son. The 83-year-old woman is battling cancer, and the online fundraiser has garnered more than $93,000 to pay her medical bills.

But Wolf hopes for a more permanent tribute.

Wolf is seeking signatures for an online petition calling for the Fort Hood deployment center to be renamed after Laird. Since going live about two weeks ago, just over 7,000 people have signed Wolf's petition.

"Within two minutes of setting it up, I had two signers," he said. "I don't know how they found it that quick."

Wolf is unsure how many signatures he wants to attain, but "we're going to need a lot more than what we have," he said.

Wolf has shared the petition on Facebook with local yard sale groups and veterans' groups. He added Lee Stuckland, Fort Hood's Plans and Operations Division Chief and Deputy Director, to the petition to grab the attention of staff at the center..

"I'd like to see this done for (Laird's) 84th birthday coming up in January," Wolf said.

The memories of Laird shared by servicemen and women and their families online impressed Wolf.

"Myself, a hug is a hug, but from reading the comments, what it meant to these guys and girls, I think that's awesome what she's doing," he said.

Jeffrey Wolf, 50, of Penn Township has started a Change.Org petition to get recognition for Elizabeth Laird, known as the "Hug Lady."(Photo: Clare Becker)

"There have been comments where, you've had mothers saying, 'Thank you for hugging my son when I couldn't be there to do it,'" he said. "Here you got a guy that's going off to war, and nobody's there for him. She is."

Wolf read one account from a woman who said Laird's hug was the last hug her husband ever received.

"If she knew the plane was coming in, she was there," he said.

Renaming the deployment center for Laird is an appropriate accolade, according to Wolf.

"Even after she's dead and gone," he said, "people are still going to think of her."

Attempts to reach Fort Hood officials and Laird's family members were not immediately successful.